Over the last several years the use of mobile phones has become ubiquitous. Mobile phones, especially the so-called smartphones that enable not only voice but also data communications including emailing and texting and typically have touch-screens responsive to a user's touch, are carried by people virtually everywhere they go. Indeed, continuously checking emails and texts and looking for information on the Internet is so pervasive for many people, that some have likened it to an obsession or an addiction.
Given the incessant attention that people give to their mobile devices, these devices are unlikely to be forgotten by their owners. People are more likely to leave their wallets or their credit cards somewhere, than they are to leave their mobile devices. And if they have inadvertently left a mobile device somewhere, it is often only a matter of minutes before a person will habitually reach for their device and realize it is not with them, and immediately return to their last location to retrieve their mobile device.
As the use of mobile smartphones has increased, and given the cost to replace these devices if they are damaged, the use of mobile phone protective cases has also become widespread. As illustrated in prior art FIGS. 1 and 3, these cases are manufactured to a size and dimension whereby one may simply press a mobile phone (not shown) into the protective case in a well-known manner, so that the phone is thereafter protected from the outside elements along its back and along all four sides. Further, a user will also often purchase a transparent cover (not shown) for the front face of the device which cover does not bar signals from the user's fingers from passing through the cover, so the user can still operate the mobile device touch screen even with such a cover in place. These mobile phone protective cases, like the mobile phones to which they are attached, are also unlikely to be forgotten, precisely because they are attached to and travel with the mobile phone.
Although the psychological attachment that people have to their mobile phones is often viewed in a negative way, there is one very positive benefit to this: any personal items which might be attached to the phone—such as the protective case—have a very low probability of being lost or forgotten precisely because the user is so attentive to the phone and thereby as a corollary implication, to whatever else may be attached to the phone. This makes the mobile phone protective case in particular, an ideal vehicle for carrying with the phone, small personal items such as credit cards, hotel room key cards, paper money, coins, keys, pills, jewelry, and the like. These items often are valuable and/or can be replaced only with a great deal of time expenditure, and so it is desirable that these be kept safe and not be lost or stolen.
The prior art does reveal a number of mobile phone protective cases which are designed to enable users to carry small personal items. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 8,047,364 discloses a protective covering for a personal electronic device that contains “an externally accessible pocket . . . in the manner of a wallet” (abstract). This pocket, however, is not enclosed, nor is it locked, so whatever may be contained in this pocket can easily fall out or be stolen in the event a user is momentarily inattentive to, or clumsy with, their device. Similar devices configured with slot or pockets and having similar limitations are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,381,904; U.S. Pat. No. 8,718,729; U.S. Pat. No. 8,757,376; U.S. Pat. No. 8,923,938; U.S. Pat. No. 8,989,826; US 2011/0294556; US 2013/0095898; US 2014/0066142; US 2014/0148228; US 2015/0156297; US 2015/0365122 and US 2016/0028430. US 2014/0228082; US 2015/0018056 and US 2016/0028429 are also of the same genre, but utilize a hinged or billfold configuration that is likewise not secure.
The prior art also reveals a number of mobile phone protective cases that facilitate carrying with the phone, very specific, specialized personal items. This prior art includes U.S. Pat. No. 8,483,786; U.S. Pat. No. 8,971,975 and US 2011/0136555 (bottle opener); U.S. Pat. No. 8,879,773; U.S. Pat. No. 8,827,074; US 2006/0121962; US 2007/0293288 and US 2015/0319274 (earbuds and wires); US 2013/0344925 (keys); US 2014/0162735 (touch pen); US 2014/0315603 (measuring device); US 2014/0370945 (personal defense shock device); US 2015/0141093 (lighter); US 2015/0244407 (pills/medications). Aside from being configured in a limiting way to carry these specialized personalized items, these cases also do not provide suitable security for whatever they are carrying.
All of the foregoing reveals a need to improve the prior art so that mobile integrated phone cases used to carry personal items are configured in such a way that the personal items being stored are securely attached and locked to or within the integrated phone case so as to prevent their falling out or being easily stolen.
Specifically, it would be desirable to have a mobile phone protective case designed with a latching “frame and drawer” configuration that provides enhanced security against loss or theft of reasonably-valuable personal items being carried by that protective case.
It would further be desirable for the mobile phone protective case to provide a security lock so that even if some other person who does not own the phone were to come into possession of the phone (such as by theft or by finding a lost phone), it would be impossible for that other person to remove any personal items being stored in the integrated phone case without either providing the correct credentials to the lock or breaking the lock. In this way, the mobile phone protective case would become, in effect, a small, portable, personal safe as well.